At the Toronto Film Festival, NBCUniversal chair Donna Langley delivered a rare public apology for one of the franchise's most criticised stunts. She conceded that the rocket-car sequence in F9—where Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris blast a car all the way to the space station—might have pushed things past the breaking point.
"I'm sorry we sent them into space. It was a mistake, and we can never get that genie back in the bottle," Langley said during a conversation with festival director Cameron Bailey.
Yet she emphasised that the series' real strength has always been its ability to reinvent itself. When Tokyo Drift struggled with audiences—"hard to believe in hindsight," she noted—the team opted for a soft reboot with Fast & Furious, shifting focus from pure street-racing to globe-spanning heists.
Langley also credited Vin Diesel's sharp instinct for fan engagement and his early embrace of social media as key to the saga's longevity. That same fan power helped resurrect Michelle Rodriguez's character Letty after massive outcry.
Finally, Langley stressed that the franchise's diverse cast is simply part of its DNA: "It was never even a discussion - Fast & Furious reflects the real car culture of Los Angeles."
<social>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qomc0YuGlAI</social>